COLUMBUS — Three Hocking County Sheriff’s deputies who are being sued in federal court by a Murray City resident have answered his civil rights complaint, denying his key allegations and asking the court to grant judgment in their favor.
Plaintiff Robert L. Wolfe is suing the sheriffs’ office, three current deputies and one former deputy. He has alleged that when officers came to his home on Feb. 23, 2023 to serve him with a civil protection order, one of them assaulted and injured him, and the officers then “falsely arrested” him for assault, entered his home without permission or a warrant, and seized all his firearms. In the process, his lawsuit claims, they violated his rights under the Second, Fourth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
In February of this year Wolfe, acting as his own attorney, filed his complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, and then filed an amended version in April. In an answer to the lawsuit filed Thursday, three of the four officer defendants present 13 different defenses to the suit. (These three officers — Craig Johnson, Carl Wilderman and Kyle Arnett- are still with the agency. The fourth officer defendant, former Chief Deputy Caleb Moritz, left the sheriff’s office last year, and is now under indictment for multiple felony offenses.)
As exhibits attached to their answer, the officers include an incident report that gives a version of the Feb. 23, 2023 incident at Wolfe’s home that differs from the account in his complaint.
According to a narrative written by Johnson, he and Wilderman were called to Wolfe’s residence to assist Moritz with serving the protection order.
Speaking to Wolfe on his porch, the report says, Moritz told him that the court order required Wolfe to not possess any firearms, so that if he had any, he would have to turn them over. On hearing this Wolfe “became agitated and stated he would not comply with the order,” and then “abruptly turned to enter the house,” according to the sheriff’s report.
Out of concern for officer safety if there were guns in the house, the officers ordered Wolfe to stop, and when he did not comply, Moritz and Wilderman “grabbed Mr. Wolfe in the doorway and took him to the floor of the porch. Mr. Wolfe began wildly kicking. I grasped Mr. Wolfe’s legs to stop him. Mr. Wolfe kicked at me striking me in the chest.”
The report goes on to say that Moritz was able to calm Wolfe down, and he then “became compliant” and told the officers where in the house to find his guns. They confiscated 25 firearms, and then arrested Wolfe for obstructing justice and took him to jail.
The report says that Wolfe and Moritz both suffered minor abrasions from the scuffle, which Johnson photographed to document them.
Wolfe’s complaint, by contrast, claims that he suffered a dislocated sternoclavicular joint in his shoulder that was “very painful,” and for which he continues to need physical therapy.
One of the allegations in Wolfe’s complaint that the officers deny is his claim that Moritz effectively lied to him about the terms of the protection order, telling him that the officers were required to immediately seize his guns, whereas the order actually, according to Wolfe, game him three days to surrender them.
Among the defenses offered in the answer to the suit include the assertion that the defendants were not acting “pursuant to a policy or custom.” This is an essential element in establishing liability on the part of a government agency when its agents are accused of violating a citizen’s civil rights.
The defendants also assert that, contrary to Wolfe’s claim that they entered his home without warrant or permission, he had consented to let them in. They say they had probable cause to arrest him on the obstructing charge, and that while Wolfe’s lawsuit says the charge was later dismissed, the defendants “lack sufficient information” to say whether or not this is true.
Wolfe is seeking $100,000 in damages.
Email at jphillip@logandaily.com
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